Nonsense Books

Nonsense Books by Edward Lear is a comedy, poetry, shorts first published in 1894. Its central concerns include emotion, memory, nature, identity, and the expressive possibilities of language, approached through the possibilities of comedy, poetry, shorts. Rather than depending on topical novelty, the book builds its interest through the interaction of character, situation, and idea. Form and tone matter throughout, with a compressed, musical style in which rhythm, image, and sound shape meaning. At roughly 28,539 words with a fairly easy reading profile, it offers a reading commitment that is easy to judge before beginning while still leaving room for close attention. Readers still return to it because of its contribution to poetic tradition and its invitation to reread slowly. Readers drawn to comedy, poetry, shorts and emotion will find a work that combines a distinct period voice with questions that remain recognizable today. Because the work leaves space for judgment rather than reducing its ideas to a simple lesson, different readers may find different points of emphasis within it.